Since the last 7months, I’ve been using Instamojo to collect
payments for an event which I co-host. Having collected close to Rs ~80,000
over ~300 transactions(average ticket size is around 160, skew due to one-off
Mar-17 event), my experience of the platform has been that it delivers what it
promises- an inexpensive, swift, efficient way to collect payments for various
purposes(in my case, events). Why do I like it so much, or prefer this to
UPI/direct account transfer? Preregistration for events is helpful to build
seriousness and minimize dropouts- while Prepayment for events builds a
trackable database, and lowers credit risk and operational cash issues, so that
you can focus on enjoying the event rather than on who has paid(or not). Besides,
while in our case, even Rs 150-200 is a pittance actually, this lowers the odds
of overplanning and wasting food/resources.
1.
Sleek and elegant web UI-Easy for payments and
vendors
2.
Only option I could locate for individuals(non
registered entities) which allows you the full payment gateway functionality
3.
Allows to collect fields beyond name/email/mobile-this
can be used to pre-qualify people during signups, and update the database. No
need to seek and update spreadsheets
4.
Protects your and the payor’s payment
information-neither party is aware of the source or recipient payment method.
5.
Allows different variants and discount codes-useful
for price differentiation
6.
Excellent reporting interface, downloadable 24*7
7.
Avoids payment hassles for you and various
options for those who need to pay you-no more frequent logging into bank
account to check who paid out
8.
Instant receipt-allows confirmation to those who
paid that their funds are safe
9.
Easy refunds without time limit-useful if you
cancel the event OR issue a discretionary refund.
10.
Premium options for SEO etc which I have not
used.
Some things which could be better
1.
Micro Loans on T+1 at 0.25%-This might give a
perverse incentive to delay payments
2.
Better Wallet Integration-They don’t have PAYTM
for example, and till recently used to charge money for even offering this
facility
3.
Mode of payment/Device Type meta data-this could
be provided in the payments dashboard for vendor to analyze better his customer
profile
4.
Not passing on TDR/MDR benefit from RBI-In the
months RBI lowered the transaction charges, they could have reduced it for end
customers also. But they chose not to affect the standard pricing, thus
demonstrating their pricing power. Not kosher!
For all this, paying Rs 3+1.99%(+service tax) is totally
worth it even though it works out to 3.5%-4.0% of my overall proceeds. But
considering the time it saves me, it is totally worth it.
Kudos to the team and to their backers(their website
includes names like Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 500 Startups, Rajan Anandan, Sunil Kalra,
Dave McClure, Rob de Heus, Thijs Gitmans, Pankaj Jain, Shailesh Rao, Bharathram
Thothadri, Avlesh Singh.)
PS: This is purely a review without any commercial or other
benefit from the gateway.
